| Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and | | | | placed on specific parts of the body, starting with the |
| relaxation that also promotes healing. Reiki is the | | | | head. Some reiki practitioners do not touch the physical |
| Japanese word for "universal life energy" and | | | | body but transmit healing into the surrounding aura. |
| pronounced "ray-kee." It is a form of healing based on | | | | Reiki can be used to heal the self or someone else, |
| tapping into the unseen flow of energy that permeates | | | | and reiki energy can be projected into the future or |
| all living things.It is believed that reiki originally evolved as | | | | directed to a distant place. It can also be used on pets |
| a branch of Tibetan Buddhism and that knowledge of | | | | or plants.Anyone can learn reiki because it is not taught |
| its power and how to use it was transmitted from | | | | in the strict sense of the word, but transferred from |
| master to disciple. At some point in the intervening | | | | teacher to pupil. This transferral is made though a |
| centuries, the secrets of reiki were lost. They were | | | | series of "degrees." The first degree usually takes a |
| rediscovered in the late 19th century by a Japanese | | | | weekend and four initiations by a reiki master. It does |
| minister, Dr. Mikao Usui. He spent 14 years seeking the | | | | not involve changing religious beliefs. These initiations |
| ability to heal, which he believed could be discovered | | | | impart the ability to transmit healing energy to oneself |
| thiough studying Buddhism, learning Chinese and | | | | and others. The second degree deepens participants' |
| Sanskrit to help his research. It is claimed that he | | | | experience and enables them to give distant healing. |
| eventually found the knowledge he sought in an Indian | | | | The third degree is taken by those wishing to become |
| sutra, or sacred text. Then, after a three-week | | | | reiki masters, able to teach others.The results of |
| meditation on a mountain top, he had a vision of four | | | | treatment can be dramatic, or more gradual, showing |
| symbols that could be used to enable healing energy | | | | themselves in general improvements in health and |
| to be passed to others. The ability to channel the | | | | well-being. Reiki healing energies can have lasting |
| healing power was achieved by attunement to each | | | | results only if the recipient accepts his or her |
| of these symbols. Before he died in the 1930s, Dr. Usui | | | | responsibility in the healing process and takes part in it. |
| initiated 16 others into the secret of reiki, teaching them | | | | Daily self-treatment is regarded as preventive, |
| the master attunement.One of these reiki masters | | | | supporting emotional and spiritual growth.There are |
| was Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, who undertook to preserve | | | | more than 200,000 reiki practitioners and centers in |
| reiki and pass it on. He brought scientific training to bear | | | | North and South America, Europe, and Australasia. |
| on the method, noting down the results of healing | | | | The word "reiki" is a generic term in Japanese and is |
| sessions, codifying the sequence of hand movements | | | | not exclusive to Dr. Usui's healing method; this is more |
| in a reiki session, and establishing a reiki clinic in | | | | formally known as Usui Shiki Ryoho or the Usui |
| Tokyo.Treatment by a reiki practitioner is intended to | | | | system of natural healing, and is preserved by the |
| promote physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. | | | | international Reiki Alliance, which has agreed |
| Clients lie fully clothed while the practitioner's hands are | | | | professional standards and a code of ethics. |